After the April 25 devastating earthquake caused damage to buildings in many districts as they were poorly built without following the building code, the government on May 18 decided to revise the existing national building code for safer building construction and take severe measures to ensure the building code is followed while building construction in the country.Currently, the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) under the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) has been assigned to enforce the national building code through municipalities, which are under the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD).
"But in lack of coordination among the bodies, the building code could not be effectively implemented in the municipalities in the past when the sensitive law like the building code should have been effectively enforced," said Khem Raj Nepal, former secretary of Ministry of Local Development. He said as the enforcement authority is not under the Ministry of Local Development, it did not take the building code implementation part seriously.
"So, it is high time that the government assign the total responsibility of the building code implementation to a single ministry, be it MoUD or MoFALD," said he, "But it would rather say that it would be better to assign to the local development ministry."
The DUDBC is supposed to provide technical supports to the municipal bodies to implement the law. But the authority has no right to appoint any technical manpower in the municipal bodies but only can recommend to the local development ministry. It is a reason why the government has not been able to enforce the building code in all the municipalities in the past. And even in the implemented municipalities, the law was not effectively enforced in lack of technicians.
Likewise, the DUDBC has also been assigned to carry out monitoring in the municipal bodies whether the code is effectively implemented or not. But it cannot take action against municipal employees if they are found approving faulty building design for construction. It can recommend for action through its ministry to the local development ministry.
"In this way, the whole process becomes lengthy and ineffective. So, all the responsibility of monitoring and compliance system should be under the same ministry," said he.
Naresh Giri, a building code expert who has worked with DUDBC and municipal bodies for implementing building code in the Kathmandu valley in the past, said that it was really difficult to implement the law as the two authorities under different ministries had to work.
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